


Nightmares and the In Between | Tim Drake & Danielle Woods Horror Fan-Fiction

by TheBlueMatrix



Series: Nightmares and the In Between BatFamily Horror Fanfiction Original [1]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Batman Fusion, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28777146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlueMatrix/pseuds/TheBlueMatrix
Summary: Whiplash was sent on a mission alongside Batman and Red Robin to unravel the mysteries of an abandoned supernatural laboratory. The theory is a beast of some sort was held and studied, but it broke free and killed everybody; but according to rumor, no traces of their bodies were found. They were just… gone. Once entering the dark wreck, Whiplash and her allies somehow got automatically trapped inside with no way out. Shortly after, she was separated from her partners with nothing but her whip and a small amount of gadgets, walking through nightmares of Hell, and experiencing gory things in the most gruesome ways.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Orignal Female Character
Series: Nightmares and the In Between BatFamily Horror Fanfiction Original [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116398





	1. Suffering Riddles

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: A lot of dialogue (I can't help myself)!

Batman, Red Robin and I entered the abandoned laboratory, escaping the rage of the storm. The doors screeched behind us, blocking the flying rain. Once they closed, the hallways became dark. They turned on their flashlights and I activated night vision mode on my mirror glasses and we scanned around. A chill breeze slithered on my party, Red Robin began to speak, his voice echoing. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”  
“Agreed,” Batman’s voice bounced across the walls. “We need to be cautious.”  
I suddenly felt a little woozy, I took wider steps for balance and held my head as my vision blurred. I heard Red Robin and Batman’s voices calling, echoing my name, but their voices were too muffled to understand. When everything seemed and felt perfectly fine, I straightened back up and faced forward until the hallway ahead began to twist. Before I could figure things out, I fell into a black abyss.

I woke up on the cold, hard cement floor. My hearing was perfect and my vision was clear, but what happened before was odd and questioning.  
I looked around, I was inside a boxed cement room. No doors were around. I placed my hand on the floor, my feet flat, and I stood. I gazed around some more and found a door that wasn’t there before. It’s better to move on than wait for Batman or Red Robin to find me. I went through the door; I was back in the same room. I looked behind me for it, it’s gone. Walking through the door again, it’s the same room. But I noticed something different. Down in the far left corner, a golden yellow object sat still. I took a closer look and crouched, Signal’s helmet lied there dead and motionless. It’s broken and scorched, the lense was cracked and shattered. I moved my foot for better comfort, then I heard crunching. Looking down, I moved my foot again. The shattered lense shards were covered in blood, I began to panic and back away. Did my feet get punctured? Then I checked my soles, no dents. No holes. No blood. Clean.  
Something then flashed in my mind; I saw Red Robin. He’s helping someone crawling on the floor, they’re a blur of black and blue. Was it a vision… or was I daydreaming?  
I did not want to deal with it, moving forward, the next room was still the same from the last. The helmet was still there and the same. I found a red trail across the floor. On the left wall were two handprints of blood that ran down the wall and reached the floor. The blood turned into a wide trail that scraped across the floor, but it ended once it touched the other wall.  
Another image occured, it’s Red Robin again. He’s holding someone, someone injured. They’re clearly a tan male with black hair as long as Red’s. He looked like he’s dying in his arms. I wondered who he was, though he looked very familiar somehow.  
I continued forward in the room, leaping over the blood trail and walking through the door again.  
Everything’s the same again. The helmet, the blood, but now there’s a new detail. There’s a knife sticking out of the wall on one of the handprints, then blood splats on the helmet. I looked closer, behind the shattered lense and broken holes lied a skull. Once I reached the door again, I heard shaky breathing behind me. I slowly turned. The first thing I saw was long, shaggy, black hair. Its long, pointy, sharp spine stuck far out of the surface of its rough skin. Handless winged arms and a tall, skinny, arched body with a single spike under the inside of its knees. I couldn’t get a glimpse of its face. The Skulking Demon screamed at me at a high pitch, startling me. I tripped backwards through the door.  
The next thing I knew, there was no door in front of me, just a wall. I was in a hall, it’s still dark like before. I heard gurgling growls to my right, when I turned my head, another beast was dangerously close to my presence. It looked like a living fossil, the shape of its bones were exposed from its extremely skinny figure, nothing lied in its sockets. A hundred razor sharp teeth with a side of a long, roaming tongue. The long and sharp claws with no thumbs were almost intimidating, like it could impale me at any second. Its feet were so… avian-like, the ends of its toes curved under, probably for balance, they even had two thumbs on the back; I predicted its feet or talons had a special use. And the tail was even pointier than its spine. It was average human size, though. Almost as tall as… It slowly strolled closer.  
It crept toward me.  
It extended its claws out to me.  
My joints were locked in place...


	2. The Unknown's Hall of Darkness

The Scáth Crawler wrapped its coldblooded claws on my arms, they began to dig in slowly. Its muzzle got too close for safe comfort, not like I felt safe or comfortable in the first place. Its mouth opened wide, ready for a feast. Its tongue swayed side to side. Its teeth and fangs were centimeters from my face.  
Red Robin lightly shook me back and forth with a tight, firm grip, the nightmare was clearing out. I never exactly got a chance to see his whole face, he wore his mask the whole time. He looked so real as I glanced into his blue oceanic eyes. He stopped the shaking, but his grip remained stiff.  
“Are you okay? Wake up!” Red Robin was worried, I could hear it in his voice. “You fell from the ceiling!”  
I blinked, instead of Red, it was the crawler again. Its mouth snapped on me. I immediately blinked again, it’s Red.   
“Are you hurt?” I could tell Red was becoming more uneasy and impatient, I wanted to say something, but I was afraid. My conscience rotated back to reality. Red Robin was real. The digging of the Scáth Crawler’s claws was Red Robin holding me a little too tight. I wanted to speak, but something grasped my tongue, keeping me from talking. I tensely nodded instead to answer Red’s demanding question, my eyes expressed fear to him, but all he could see through my glasses was himself. I swallowed and my breath shook. His hands loosened, almost relaxed, then he carefully removed them and stepped back, worried. Red’s mouth opened, about to speak, until we heard a little girl scream down the hall. Red Robin twisted his body around, alert, then sprinted toward the noise.   
“Wait!” I caught his wrist just in time. Red stopped and turned to me, but my grip remained on his arm. I spoke in a soft, quiet voice. “It could be a trap,” My grip tightened.  
“We need to go.”  
“But we don’t know what’s over there.”  
I heard another scream, it was masculine. Red Robin bolted down the hall of screams, my hand ripped off him from his powerful momentum.  
“Red!” I called, but he wouldn't stop. Once he turned the corner, I heard roaring and grunts. I immediately turned the corner, a giant headless serpent wrapped itself around Red Robin, or maybe it was a worm. He struggled and tried to slip away, his teargas grenade slipped out of his hand and hit the floor rolling. I ran in and clasped it, then got myself out at a comfortable and safe distance. I took a good look at the monster. Pale, headless, serpentine, and somehow it had a mouth with sharp, bristled teeth, but it didn’t close. Blood trickled down its slimy scales. It slowly squeezed Red Robin with its large serpentine body. I heard his gear begin to crack, he grunted in pain.  
“Throw it,” Red Robin commanded.  
“Where?” I asked.  
Instead of answering, he grunted louder.  
Red Robin was running out of time. I cracked my whip at the Headless Slytherah, but no scratches were shown once it made contact with the thing. I scrambled for what to do as his gear continued to crack and his painful grunts turned into yelps. The slytherah leaned closer to me, it roared with some kind of acid slobbering out its mouth at me. I tried my best to dodge the acid-spit, but some landed on my left shoulder, eating away at my flesh slowly. I yelped, then back to the creature. It spit an acid ball at me, I ducked as it flew above my head. I whipped back to see where the acid landed, then back at the slytherah. I took my chance and threw the grenade. It landed inside its mouth, the Headless Slytherah screeched, its mouth somehow ignited. In pain, it compressed Red Robin harder at a faster rate, he screamed louder. It tore me up inside to hear him in this condition. The beast finally collapsed dead, smoke whirled from its mouth.   
“Red!” I rushed to him and landed my hands on the beast’s swirling body, I pulled with all my strength to unravel it. The opening I made was wide enough for Red to wiggle himself out.  
His boots landed on the floor, then he stretched himself out. “Could’ve done it sooner.”   
As Red Robin’s body relaxed in relief, I covered my mouth with both hands as I stared at him in deep concern. “Are you alright?!” Blood filled cracks and oozed down his harness buckle and utility belt.  
“I’ve been through worse,” He said, “The important question is, are you alright?” he spied my wounded shoulder.  
“Me?” I asked in a surprised tone. “You almost died!”  
“I fight for what I protect. If it includes giving my life to keep them safe, so be it,” Red Robin strolled closer, he slipped his fingers between my left arm and ribs and lightly gripped, then gently elevated it. I hardly felt the wound intensify, he was so gentle. Red gazed at my blooded shoulder, then spoke softly. “Does it hurt?”  
“It burns.”  
He stared a little longer, then carefully hugged me. “At least you’re alright.”  
I took time to soak in the moment, but we were wasting precious time. “We should keep moving.”   
Red Robin removed his arms from my body and we continued forward. Another vision flashed in my head, it was Batman. He picked up Red Robin’s metal staff from the floor, but it was cracked and chipping away. Next to his feet was Red lying unconscious with splotches of blood around his body. It turned black and I heard Batman’s voice. “You shouldn’t have done that…”  
“Did you…?” I didn’t finish and turned to Red Robin, assuming he knew what I meant.  
“See a vision of Batman?”  
“What do you think happened?”  
“Now’s not the time to think about that.”  
The Headless Slitherah’s body strangely disappeared. Instead, piles of dust or ash took its place.  
“Am I going crazy?” I questioned.  
“We all might be mad here,” He replied, referencing Alice in Wonderland on purpose.  
I heard the shifting of metal and rocks above me, I faced up and tried to find the source of the noise.  
“Look out!” Red Robin shouted. When I lowered my head to him, I became alarmed. Red charged and leapt at me, wrapping his arms around my body, the collapsing ceiling grazed his foot. We tumbled on the floor, safe from being broken. Red landed on me, removing his arms and planting his hands on the floor next to my shoulders. “Are you alright?” He was worried.  
“Yeah. Except most of your weight is on me.”  
Red Robin shifted himself to my right with the sound of his gear making contact with the floor. He sat up and then stood, lending me a hand. I took it, he lifted me up so fast effortlessly that I ended up getting airborne. Once my feet hit the floor, I ran into him and he held me close. Am I really that light or is he really that strong? I thought to myself. I cleared my mind from that question and leaned to the side, looking behind him. There were shards of metal and cement and a large piece of the ceiling cracked, bent, and broken.  
“Okay, now we should go,” I said.  
“Uhh,” Red turned me around, a Skulking Demon stood at the end of the hallway.  
“Can we ever stay out of trouble!?”  
“Apparently not!”  
“We seriously need a break!”  
Red didn’t respond, instead he threw batarangs at the demon. It blocked itself with its wings and they bounced off. I turned around and began to walk away like there was nothing to see, Red Robin caught my belt and pulled me back in next to him. Guess I wasn’t leaving him alone with that. The Skulking Demon unfolded its wings, spread them, and soared toward Red and I, screaming; its wings scraped the walls and sparks flew. Red clutched my wrist and darted away. I scrambled trying to catch up with his speed comfortably, he could feel me struggling. As soon as I was able to run properly, he let go and sharply turned a corner. When I reached the corner, Red Robin grabbed my arm and swung me against the wall.  
“What are you--” Red covered my mouth and hushed. The demon flew by and slammed its head into the wall and fell on the floor. Red Robin yanked out three batarangs and threw them at it, one hit the Skulking Demon’s head, one in its neck, and another in its back. It disintegrated slowly into dust, the dust fell into piles. Red removed his hand from my mouth. I thought, okay, it’s one thing to keep me quiet, but pulling me into the wall was not necessary. I chose not to say that, I didn’t want to be rude to my husband who just saved my life twice in a row.  
I heard the same gurgling growls behind me from when Red found me. I looked at Red Robin to make sure he hadn't changed; the feeling of great dread arose. I felt a hundred puncturing teeth clamp my forearm, it roughly pulled me backward. It hurts. Blood trickled. The creature violently dragged me through a doorway.  
“Red…! No-Tim!!” I screamed. Red Robin ran to my rescue, but he was too late. The doors shut tight.  
“No!” He banged on the door, demanding for it to be opened. “Let her go!”  
The Scáth Crawler grabbed my torso with its large talons, knocking me to the floor and holding me tight. It slowly dragged its long, sharp fingers deep into my flesh. I screamed loudly in agonizing pain. Red Robin’s banging became louder and he screamed through the door demanding my release. Tears escaped my eyes as I was tormented slowly.  
It went on for what felt like eternity. The crawler disappeared somewhere. I couldn’t tell if it was somewhere in the room or not, but I didn't hesitate to escape. I limped to the door as Red Robin continued to bang on it, I opened it and he immediately wrapped his arms around me and pressed me against his body. “Thank God, you’re not dead!”   
I was still in tears, it still hurts. Badly. After Red let go, I felt three large, sharp needles drive through my back and out my stomach. My ears rang. The needles held for a second or two, blood oozed around them, dripping at the tips. Red shouted a strong reaction; I bled through my leather suit and skin. The three needles ripped back out. I held my stomach, my knees began to tremble, my spine was weakening. The Scáth Crawler that had impaled me with its claws faded into the shadows with a large, sharp grin on its skeletal face.  
I began to collapse, Red Robin caught me, carefully sitting me on the floor. I leaned against the wall next to the door, I wanted to speak, but instead of a word, I began to whimper. I felt my heart and lungs giving in.   
This was it.   
My eyes were blurring.   
It bites.   
It stings.   
It throbs.  
I could feel Red Robin place two fingers next to my throat, he’s checking my pulse. It’s slow. Too slow. My eyes tugged my eyelids shut.  
In blood I draw the line...


	3. Death Is the Savior

I woke up. Again. I seemed to have slept on my side, almost fully curled up as if I cried myself to sleep or tried to keep myself warm. I heard clanking noises, or were they thuds? Perhaps they’re clicks? It’s hard to tell, my hearing was kind of low. My body felt heavy as I tried to lift myself on my elbow. I let out a breathy sigh and looked up, Red Robin was on the floor and leaning on the wall; he appeared to be fidgeting with his gadgets. I got up on my knees and sat on my ankles, then rested my hands beside my legs. I moaned, something in my body clicked or popped, it was not a satisfying feeling. Red Robin froze, then turned his head to me. It appeared he heard me. Seeing me conscious and more importantly alive and kind of well was enough for him, he quickly set down the gadget, crawled to me and kissed me; he put his hand on mine and cupped my jaw.  
“What happened…?” I muttered.   
Red Robin softly hushed, “Save your breath,” his voice was soft and quiet. “Listen,” He grazed his fingertips across my cheek and brushed my hair away from my face, as soon as I felt his touch, a vision flashed into my eyes. I saw three “large needles” stab through my stomach, blood dripped from the ends. The needles ripped out my body, Red Robin caught me as I fell. My head limply rested on his shoulder, his arms wrapped tight, embracing me. The last flashes revealed a tongue violently swinging left and right; a Scáth Crawler’s thin teeth grinned in the dark shadows. “No!” Muffled agonizing screams played as the crawler faded to black.  
“What’s wrong?” Red had gotten more concerned. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  
My attention snapped to him. “I died… didn’t I…?”   
Red Robin looked reluctant, but he couldn’t lie to me. He nodded without saying a sore yes. Deep down he knew it was his duty to protect me, but he seemed to express sorrowful failure.  
I never bothered to notice before, but Red’s suit looked almost brand new, and my shoulder and stomach weren’t dyed in red. “Hey, the cracks are gone.”  
“I could say the same about you.”  
I had an urge to confess. “Timmy… I’m scared. I don’t know what will happen to us, or you, or me--I don’t know if we’ll survive this nightmare anymore.”  
“Don’t say that, we’ll make it out,” He embraced me and cradled my head. “I love you so much,” He whispered.  
“I love you, too,” I clutched his cape and buried my face in his neck, silently weeping.  
I let go when I was ready, then stood and lent Red Robin a hand; he took a hold of my wrist and I took his, then I pulled him up.  
“Don’t you dare scare me like that again,” Red pressed his finger on my collarbone, I felt the tension build. I stared into his eyes--He was serious and trembling, but one thing’s for sure, Red Robin can get scary when he wants to be.   
“Consider it payback,” I replied.  
“For what?”  
“Really? You don’t remember? You faked your death in front of my face like an idiot in Brooklyn.”  
“Okay, makes sense. You still don’t forgive me.”  
“No. And I never will,” I turned around and walked down the hall, Red’s not far behind. “No matter how many times you apologize,” I turned a corner, the wall on the right had a clean gap, which was another hall. I saw something clearly, it was leaning against the corner on the floor. A skeleton lay inside Red Hood’s suit. I got closer and crouched down. The shining red helmet was broken, the bottom half was broken off and the white lenses over the eyes were missing. The skeleton itself did not look fresh, the bones were aged and weathered. I shifted my eyes to the skull, the jaw was open, perhaps gravity tugged on it to make it drop. I glanced at Red Robin and called him over, “Hey, Red, come take a look at this,” I watched him get closer.  
“What is it?” He seemed blank-faced.   
I turned my head back to the skeleton, it was misplaced. There was nothing left of it, no dust, not even a blood trail. “I don’t get it,” My brain puzzled and squirmed for an answer. “Red Hood’s skeleton was right here, I saw it. I saw him…”   
“Are you sure?”  
“I know what I saw, I’m not crazy. At least… I don’t think I’m crazy.”  
“Maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you. Don’t trust them.”  
“Where’d that come from?”  
Red Robin shrugged. “I heard it somewhere.”  
“And you’re not going to tell me?”  
“Nah.”  
“Wow. You can be a real jester sometimes, huh?”  
“And you can be a real pain in the neck to keep alive.”  
“No, you can be a real pain in the neck to keep alive! I keep you well and healthy more than you take me out to dinner. And are you saying that I don’t know how to take care of myself?”  
“I’m saying your training needs more work.”  
I began to raise my voice. “Oh, and yours doesn’t?”  
“No, it doesn’t. Have you been living in a world where people aren’t dying from crimes?” Red Robin raised his voice as well.  
“Have you been living in a world where peace, innocence, and endangered lives doesn’t exist--wait,” I had a sudden realization. My face was two inches away from Red’s, both glaring. Red pulled back and folded his arms and continued to look at me, making his point. He had won the argument with no effort and packed with grounded intellect and experience.  
We heard echoed cracking, crackling, and grinding down the dark hall to my left. I looked at Red Robin and flicked my head towards the hall of noises. He gazed down the hall and knew what I meant, then sank into a stealth stance and took a couple steps into the darkness. Red shifted his head to me and waved forward, I nodded and followed close behind. We stealthily crept inside the crawling shadows, figuratively stitching our mouths shut with wire.  
Red Robin and I found the source of the unpleasant uproar. We straightened our backs, Red blocked me with his arm as a sign of protection as we stared up. No surprise, it was another beast, but this one was different. It was an enormous black and blood red reptile with huge soaring wings. Its black, metallic claws’ shimmer sliced through the darkness somehow, they looked devastating. Rows of sparkling white teeth leaked blood, droplets fell from its fangs and splashed on the cold floor. The eyes… white irises with pale rose red bursted from the black abyss of the pupil, the ring was surrounded in Death’s black smile. The tail was long and spear-shaped and the horns were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They pulled back and circled back in, but after every turn, the horns were in a straight line. It snacked on Robin’s corpse, stripping the red and green shells with its claws and eating the meat under it. Once it reached the bones, the Death Dragon ate them like they were part of the meal. It pained us to see this. The Death Dragon sensed our presence. It paused, then shifted its head, staring at us. It snarled, growled, and pushed the mauled body to the side near the wall. I scrambled my eyes around the environment and spotted something. “Red, look. The Death Dragon’s guarding a door,” I pointed at the door.   
“Wooow. That’s a very creative name. Very clever,” Red Robin bantered sarcastically.  
“Shut up,” I whacked the back of his head.  
“Ow!”  
“I could’ve done it harder.”  
Red sighed with a growl.  
“I’ll distract it while you find a way to climb and kill it.”  
“What? No!”  
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you have a better plan? Do you have proficiency with a whip?”  
“I hate you.”  
“I’ll take that as ‘I love you.’”  
Red Robin and I engaged the Death Dragon. My whip cracked at its face and arms, not quite cutting it--It roared back at me. Red watched the dragon while getting to its side, but it flapped its wings, hitting Red and launching him at a wall, his back bounced off and he fell on the floor. He stood back up and glanced at the dragon, then the wall--Red dragged his finger against the cement wall, studying its texture, then the sole of his boot. Red Robin backed away from the wall and stopped near the Death Dragon, he sprinted at it and ran up, then launched himself. He almost performed a backflip, but he had just enough power and momentum to reach the dragon’s wing airborne. Red grabbed the wing and the rest of him swung over his head, then he was hanging off the edge. He climbed up and leapt at the backside then climbed its long, serpent-like neck, but he almost slipped off several times since I was whipping at the Death Dragon like an evil ringmaster. Red Robin reached the head, and I stopped cracking my whip. He stood on the bottom side of its horn next to its jaw, ready to jump in its mouth. The Death Dragon swung its head like a dog to shake Red Robin off, he had trouble staying on but he didn’t fling off--The dragon’s method was useless.  
“Do it!” Red commanded me.  
“I don’t wanna hurt you!” I complained.  
“I don’t care! Do it!”  
I hesitated, then cracked my whip at the dragon one more time. It roared at me, and luckily I didn’t slash Red. Red took his chance and jumped in its mouth, holding the roof above him so the jaws wouldn’t snap shut on him. The Death Dragon was trying to close its mouth, and Red Robin tried to prevent that, but he was slowly failing. His body was curling up to the strength of its jaws, he was growling. Adrenaline rushed in, providing him with extra strength, so he pushed against the force and straightened. His arms reached above his head, then we heard a snap. The Death Dragon hollered, howled, and roared as Red Robin hyperextended its jaw. Red activated a grenade of some sort and held it to the dragon’s nose as a smoke or gas whirled inside, “It’s bedtime, beastie,” then he jumped out before it fell asleep. The Death Dragon’s body plopped on the floor, then its head followed, but the eyes didn’t close.  
“I know I said ‘kill it,’” I began. “But that works too. Is it out?”  
Red Robin placed a hand on its nose. “Yeah, it’s sleeping. It appears to sleep with its eyes open--Or it just doesn’t have any eyelids.”  
“Creepy,” I shivered.  
“Aww, is my Naga already tuckered out?” An elegant woman’s voice spoke. She appeared petting the Death Dragon’s rear leg. She had a witch vibe to her. She wore black velvet drapes with fishnet sleeves and a hood over her head and covering her eyes. Her black hair curled wildly and was well taken care of, her paleness was complimented by rose red lipstick and black nailpolish. Her rose pink eyes were supported by pink eyeshadow and cat eyes and perfectly thin eyebrows. Her body looked small and delicate with a perfect hourglass shape.  
“‘Naga?’” I repeated.  
“That’s her name.”  
“And who are you?” Red Robin demanded an answer.  
“You can call me Alice,” Her eyes shifted, they were drawn to Red Robin specifically. She wandered over to him, “Mmm… You look like a handsome, noble man,” her tone was charming, running her fingers down Red Robin’s jawline, then tapped his hard mask with her long, sharp, black nail. “I wonder what you look like under that mask… Show me.”  
“No,” Red’s voice was firm. Alice would have to do a whole lot more to get him under her spell.  
Alice chuckled, she gripped his gold harness and pulled him in. “I like it when men such as yourself play hard to get,” Her lustful lips were an inch away from his, she shoved him back onto a wooden chair that was there before a foot away from her. Red Robin’s back hit the back of the chair, his head whiplashed. The hall changed into a room, and the Death Dragon known as Naga disappeared.  
“I wonder how well you will do,” Alice summoned a knife, stabbed Red Robin’s hand for no reason and left it there. She turned her back on him and strolled near me. Red tried to remove the knife as his hand oozed blood, it wouldn’t budge--It stabbed through the wood as well. “In the face of death,” She pulled a lever. Thick, short, metal chains with a five hundred pound ball cuffed to my wrist and dragged me down to the floor, I landed on my knees.  
“Oh, whoops. Wrong lever.”  
“Why do you even have that lever?” I questioned Alice.   
She pulled the lever on the right. Magic cuffed Red Robin’s wrists and ankles to the chair and immediately electrocuted him at high voltage, he screamed in excruciating pain, the sudden noise made me jump. My glasses mirrored Red’s torment with my expression in fear, “No, stop!! You’ll kill him!!” I cried, scrambling for him, but the heavy ball kept me in place.  
Alice laughed, “That’s the point, sweetheart. Buut… I guess I can give him a break. I would hate to see you suffer his death,” she pulled the lever again, the sparks and lightning retreated and the magic cuffs were gone, Red Robin was panting hard in relief as the remaining sparks roamed on him and vanished.  
“Red! You okay?!” I called. He nodded, still huffing.  
“You know what?” Alice approached Red Robin, she traced her nail on the seams of his suit. “I won’t kill you. I think I’m going to keep you,” She pressed her mouth against his, hoping her magic would turn him.  
“NO!!” I roared. I gripped my whip and cracked it at her back, she bent back and howled. “He’s mine!” I removed the cuff after I picklocked it when she wasn’t looking.  
Alice whipped around to me. “You will regret that, you little runt!”  
Red Robin removed the knife from his hand, stood, and grabbed Alice from behind with the knife’s bloody blade at her throat. “I don’t think so. We’ve dealt with worse homicidal maniacs than you.”  
“Do it. Kill me. You’ll never make it out alive,” Alice had a sinister grin.  
“That’s not our style. I honestly thought this would scare you.”  
“Scare me? These hellish creatures are my pets.”  
Red Robin and I glanced at each other.  
“Okay, that’s it,” I pulled out a taser. Red moved the blade and I tased her neck, Alice twitched as he held her. I removed the taser after she was unconscious, and Red let her drop on the floor. I looked at him, then my emotions transitioned. “Timothy,” I embraced him, ignoring the shocks from him and his suit.  
“I’m alright,” He spoke softly.  
“I hated that…”  
“It’s over now, you’re safe… We’re safe…”  
“We’re checking you for burn marks when we get home…”  
“I know…”  
The room began to tilt on its side, our feet slipped and our backs hit the floor--Red Robin still had me in his arms. We slid towards a black abyss, he ripped out his grapple gun and shot at the wall above us. The grapple hit the wall, making it crack on impact and stuck to it, it was strong enough to hold us both. We dangled from the line as the abyss was directly under our feet, waiting for us to fall so it could swallow us whole. We held each other as tight as we could, Red Robin wasn’t going to let me fall. I felt us drop, but we were caught. “I can’t hold on much longer,” Red Robin’s voice shook.  
“Don’t you dare let go!” I demanded.  
“Whatever happens,”  
“Timothy, no!”  
“I love you,” He was trembling. “So much.”   
“Tim,” I shuddered, my eyes were watering, and so were his. He kissed me, tears dropped from his eyes and slithered down my cheeks; my tears fused with his as they crept down my jaw and neck. Red Robin’s hand slipped off the grapple gun and we screamed as we were consumed in the blackness…


	4. Nightmares and the In Between

I groaned as I lied on the cold cement floor. I held myself up on my hands and knees, my body was sore and flared with pain and my head ached. I tried to remember what happened, it was blurry, but I remember my screams, his screams. That’s right. We fell. “Red…? Red Robin?” My voice was weak. I scanned the floor, Red Robin laid motionless on his back four feet away. I hurriedly crawled to him, I rested a hand on his chest; it expanded and contracted shallowly. Instead of trying to wake him up, I dragged him by the ankles to the nearest wall and propped him up against it. I checked his pulse, it was slow but normal, he took deeper breaths, but it was still shallow. There’s nothing to worry about, he’s asleep.  
I sat in front of Red Robin and played with the internet connection, trying to figure out how to get the signal back to pass the time, but with no success; the commlinks were all static when I tried to contact Batman. I heard a slow, quiet sigh, I lifted my head--Red Robin was conscious but still waking up. I crawled closer and gazed into his half-open eyes. “R-Red…?”  
“Hey, Dani,” His tone was soft and weak, almost whispering.   
He reached a hand out to me and cupped my jaw, I held it, kissed his palm, and closed my eyes and pressed my cheek against it with a light, patient smile. “I missed you.”  
“I missed you too,” He paused. “Where are your glasses?”  
My eyes shot open. “I didn’t even notice! Where are they?” I stood and scanned the room for them. “Oh no…”  
“What?”  
“This is the same room I woke up in after we got separated,” Then I sighed. “Come on,” I lent him a hand, he took it and I hauled him up. He followed me across the room and through the door, in my path was my large mirror glasses. “My glasses,” I took them and whined. They were cracked, chipped, and broken from the fall.  
“Be glad that wasn’t you,” Said Red Robin.  
I ignored him and placed them on my face no matter their condition. I tried to activate the night vision, but it was glitching, then I shut it off. “Night vision’s not working,” I continued going through the looping room as he followed behind.   
Red saw Signal’s scorch-stained yellow helmet with the shaded lense shards covered in blood in the corner. “Duke…”  
“I know,” I said softly to ease him. “Keep going,” We continued, he kept catching the new details, the blood handprints that merged into a scraping blood trail on the floor that ended at the wall on the other side. In the next room, he eyed the knife stabbed in one of the handprints and the blood splotches on the helmet with a skull inside. As I approached the door, I stopped and scanned the room. Last time, I was jumpscared by a Skulking Demon, but I didn’t see one in the dim darkness. “After this room is when you found me.”   
“So you don’t know what’s new behind this door?”  
“No,” I opened the door and we entered the next room. Claw marks everywhere blanketed the entire room. “Whoa. What do you think did this?”  
“Maybe one of those crawlers? Or the dragon? Does your thermal vision work?”  
“Maybe,” I activated the thermal vision, it was glitchy, but not as bad as the night vision was. “The scratches aren’t exactly fresh, the warmth is very slim. Whatever was here shouldn’t be around.”  
“Do you see anything through the walls?”  
I scanned every direction. “No. There’s something a floor or two above us, but other than that, nothing.”  
“Can you make out what it is?”  
“I can’t tell. It looks humanoid,” I deactivated the thermal vision.  
“Could be Batman, but we don’t know what other sick monsters are here.”  
“So,” I began. “You curious to see what’s new behind this door?”  
“I wouldn’t say curious, I would say suspicious.”  
I opened the door, then clapped my mouth in horror. Three skeletons were hung by a nooses; Nightwing on the left, Batgirl on the right, and Batman in the middle.  
“Bruce…”  
“He… didn’t make it?” I glanced at Red Robin. I stared at the suited skeletons again, a sign with one word hung around their broken necks. “‘RUN,’” I read. “Pfft. We’re not falling for that. That’s a classic in horror films, it’s not like something big is going to rage at us from behind.”  
We heard wreckage, things being broken from a distance.  
“You had to say that,” Red Robin was unsettled.  
“I didn’t think it would happen!”  
The Death Dragon bursted through the wall of the previous room and roared at us.  
“Run!” Red called.  
We began to dash away from the dragon at the fastest speed our legs could handle. “I thought you broke its jaw!” I recalled.  
“I did!”  
“Apparently not!”  
The room wall extended into a hall as we darted at it. The further we went, the narrower the walls got; I was forced to run behind Red Robin. Red and I rushed as we squeezed through the narrowest part of the walls. He bursted out to the other side, then took my arm and yanked me out of the tight space. I huffed from shortness of breath, my forehead rested on his collarbone as I was trying to catch it. The Death Dragon couldn’t reach us, the cement walls were too thick for it to force its way through.  
I embraced Red Robin with a relieved sigh, “We made it,” I clutched his cape. “You alright?”  
“Yeah,” Red huffed. “Yeah… I’m alright,” He loosened his arms and held me, he touched his forehead to mine; he was nuzzling. My hands shifted to his chest and our lips barely touched, then he pecked me. I pecked him back. The pecking turned into slow kisses; his hand rose and rested on my neck, my arm curled around his neck and shoulders and the other held one of the shoulders.  
A door opened, “Am I interrupting something?” A deep voice asked.  
Red and I stopped and jumped. “Bats!” I called, staring at him.  
“No,” Red Robin drew my attention back to him, “You’re not,” he gazed at me like I was his precious jewel, and he kissed me one last time.  
“Well, he kinda was,” I got technical.  
“Come on,” Batman demanded. “I’ve been looking for you two for six hours.”  
“Have you found any sources of this supernatural activity?” Asked Red Robin. “Or at least an exit?”  
“Yes. Everything unorthodox we see is an illusion caused by a new fear gas. It’s possible it’s one of Scarecrow's new experimental batches, but it’s unlikely, it doesn’t seem like his work. I’m surprised you hadn’t figured it out yet, Tim.”  
“I was busy keeping her out of trouble,” Red Robin spoke back.  
“Me out of trouble?” I repeated. “All those encounters were not my fault.”  
Out of nowhere, a creature attacked Red Robin, pinning him down. It stomped and impaled his hand with its black, sharp, peg leg and arched over him, he shouted in pain. It had a cracking design on its charcoal grey soundpapery leather skin, its white spine and skull were exposed--They were on the outside. The eyes were glossy and completely devoid of color, and its sabertooth fangs dripped blood. Red Robin struggled against the Punisher, he tried to remove its large hand that pressed him against the floor, but it pressurized his chest even more instead. He grunted, before Batman and I could do anything, the Punisher raised a hand and clenched its three long fingers, and with its long nails like Alice’s, slashed at Red Robin’s throat.

I shrieked and shot out of bed. I was panting, my throat tensed up with emotion. I felt a jerk in the bed, Tim woke up and heard me scream.  
“Hey, you alright?” Tim sat up with me.  
I glanced at him, then curled up and stared at the sheets. “Night terrors.”  
“Me too.”  
I stopped. My head slowly twisted to him and I stared, he stared back. “Isn’t this oddly suspicious?” I asked. “We have a night terror and wake up at the same time? Something’s up here. This doesn’t happen. I mean, couples can have similar dreams at different times, but not at the same time! How did yours end?”  
“A terrifying, black, half skeleton creature slits my throat.”  
“Same with mine, except I wasn't you, I was next to you. Were you electrocuted by a witch named Alice? Were you squeezed by a creepy serpent? Did I get tortured and impaled? Did you find me falling from a ceiling?”  
“Yes, yes, yes, and yes.”  
“What the hell? Did we have the exact same night terror from our own perspectives?”  
“It sounds like it. But… how? What’s going on?”  
“I have an idea, you might think I’m crazy for it.”  
“If crazy equals genius.”  
“Wrong time to reference songs, Tim. I’ll be back, get your laptop,” I left our room and went downstairs to the basement which was also Tim’s office. I didn’t bother to turn on the lights, my eyes tried to adjust to the darkness. I blindly found his desk and felt around for my Whiplash mirror glasses, then I found them. Tim liked to use my glasses for his work with all the features it had and the built-in computer I named Ace. I took the glasses and went straight back upstairs to the bedroom. I sat with Tim on the bed, he had his laptop ready; I plugged my glasses into the computer. “I want to see the latest recording my glasses caught.”   
Tim opened the top file, it was dated and had a time. Our eyes widened, I felt weird and creeped out.  
“That’s,” Tim paused. “That’s today, two minutes ago.”  
“Click the file, I have to see this recording.”  
He did as I said. We watched the video my mirror glasses recorded.  
It was exactly what I saw in the night terror, every single detail of it.


End file.
